Friday, 26 August 2011

Featured Club of the Week: Jackhammer
Venue: Lane Nightclub, Edinburgh

Date: Friday 26th August

People mourned the loss of Regis and Surgeon’s camaraderie as the British Murder Boys, but we all secretly cheer for Regis’ current collaboration with Function as Sandwell District. The live masters of modern techno are joined by the old school’s Altern8 for a DJ set. And another load of DJs keep the buzz going in all three rooms – it’s gonna be packed.

Two hot house clubs join up to deliver the debut appearance of ‘You Gonna Want Me’ Tiga in the capital; bloody time too, the amount of times I’ve heard that tune blasted in the Cab. Three hours of electro-techno will help close the Fringe season of late night clubs, while the remaining two rooms feature the Utah Saints, Kev Wright, Derek Martin, Vincent Vega, Kirk Douglas & Chris Graham and even more!

I always like the sound of ‘liquid dnb’ – as if syrupy drums are going to drench through your clothes and soak you in bass-fluids. Of course, it’s only vaguely like that, and most soakings are just the result of frenzied dancing in a room of throbbing bodies to the pounding beats. Whatever – Xplicit’s festival special welcomes the head of Hospital Records, London Elektricity, and MC Darrison for a two hour set of the finest drums to make your ears ring.

Restless Souls’ Phil Asher spins the deep house, broken beat and disco vibes for Heavy Gossip; less nattering and more natty. Ricky Reid, one half of Soul Renegades, returns for a live set of keys and vocals, joining residents Craig Smith and Nick Yuill for a blazin’ party.

Edinburgh cannot resist the top-name DJs for their closing parties, and house circus Karnival flicked through their contacts and settled upon one of their past favourites: funky and soulful Jesse Rose! The Lahndahn DJ is joined by Mike Pinkerton, Oxygen Junkies and RYZO.

Stacks is a new monthly night for Edinburgh, taking a lighter journey through soul, garage and rnb at the Wee Red Bar (26th August, 11pm-3am, £3), and Numbers host their irregular Edinburgh night at Sneaky Pete’s, spinning the freshest house, techno, dubstep and anything that can be considered de rigeur (11pm-5am, £tbc). On Saturday 27th, Big ‘n’ Bashy hit the Bongo for a wallop of grime, jungle, reggae and dubstep (11pm-5am, £tbc), and the RSI She Bang Rave Unit Festival Special, the longest-named event of the festival clubbing season features RSI residents Bill Spice and Duncan Starski, joining the She Bang Rave Unit crew for a mash-up of everything electronic at the Southern (8pm-3am, free). And Pet Rescue at The Store is actually the least likely place you’ll find Rolf Harris or wounded animals, unless they love the techno (11pm-5am, £6 / £3 before midnight).

Glasgow

Club: Killer Kitsch
Venue: Sub Club

Date: Friday 26th August

Killer Kitsch have hailed their next guests as a ‘massive influence’ who regularly feature in their own sets: Black Strobe take your kneecaps captive with sonic grooves through the Subby’s futuristic floor. The industrial electroclash maestros also release their ‘Best of 13 Years’ LP shortly, so first take a trip down memory lane in the flesh. Hushpuppy supports.

More info: On Sunday 28th, Killer Kitsch are joined by Dundee’s Ado, at their Edinburgh event at Cabaret Voltaire (11pm-5am, £tbc).

Club: Optimo
Venue: Sub Club
Date: Sunday 28th August

I can definitely see a theme at the Sub Club this weekend, when a former member of Black Strobe arrives to spin Optimo right round – Ivan Smagghe treats Glasgow to a double dose of French connection with the hottest electrohouse.

In this special Clash event (unaffiliated with the band or the magazine), The Shimmy’s Miss7 and London club Fuse’s Chris Maran go head to head with a special guest to be announced. This year sees Maran releasing his own house and techno productions after numerous slots at high-profile house and techno clubs, so catch him on the brink of stardom.

Boom Monk Ben has been travelling further afar with his sound, and Club 520 are drawing him back in to their new club, Sound, on Friday 26th. He spins a four hour set of just about everything, from dancehall dubs to smooth futuristic garage and lots in between. Visuals will be supplied by Visual AIDS, long-time collaborators with Ben (11pm-3am, £6 / £5). Power Tools power up your Saturday at Flat 0/1 with Korben Dallas and Nushta Drognova playing italo disco and house (11pm-3am, free), while Subculture host a residents’ special at the Sub Club (11pm-3am, £10 / free before midnight) with Harri and Domenic manning your house intake.

Anyone still in need of more action after the Wizard Festival up north can head to Snafu for the weekend with their two After-Parties. On Friday Ado, Bones & Money, Krazzy Martin and special guests from the Snafu tent will keep the buzz going, and Animal Farm, Bigfoot’s, Fuad and Si Smith take the Saturday sign-off.

Wednesday, 17 August 2011

Featured Club of the Week: Ultragroove Venue: Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh Date: Saturday 20th August

I’m not sure if this is the total end of Ultragroove, or if they plan to return in more blazing glory at a later date, but the club are calling it a day at the Cab after nine years as one of the helm clubs. For their final party they’ve scored Julio Bashmore, one of the hottest UK talents in deep and bass-loaded house. Support comes from The Blessings (LuckyMe), Andrew Pirie (Melting Pot), and of course resident Gareth Sommerville, spinning deep house and disco.

The line-up for Soma’s 20th Anniversary party as part of the 2011 Edge Festival is looking good; including Slam, Gary Beck and Animal Farm. For a Soma fan it doesn’t matter – you’re guaranteed the freshest in house and techno beats!

Fancied yourself a slice of Venetian history? Wee Red Bar are hosting a one-off Venetian ball, with live performances, films, installations and soundtrack. Masks are essential (Thursday 18th, 10pm-3am, £tbc). For more bass in your life, Homegrown at Sneaky Pete’s (11pm-3am, free) and Dubstar at The Store (11pm-5am, £5) for drum and bass, dubstep and grimy flavours. On Friday 19th, Four Corners draw together all the beats of the world on a funky and soulful tip at the Bongo (11pm-5am, £5 / £3 before midnight).

What happens when two soundsystems collide? They produce mighty rumbles of reggae and dancehall of course! Argonaut and Bass Warrior team up at the re-opened Centre with low door price, and all guests can bring their own drinks (no glass)!

It’s the second Sensu Boat Party, so blow the cobwebs and glitter off your shipmate cap for another house and techno sailing from the Science Centre. The special guests will be Art Department aka Kenny Glasgow and Jonny White!

More info: There will be a Sub Club afterparty from 11pm-3am, free entry with a boat ticket, or £10!

Club: Subculture
Venue: Sub Club
Date: Saturday 20th August

Subculture welcome back Dixon (Innervisions), always playing at the forefront of Berlin house music, and always cheered in the Subbie! Support comes from Harri and Domenic.

11pm-3am, £10

Club: Oh My Days
Venue: La Cheetah
Date: Saturday 20th August

Tonight is the launch night of Oh My Days, from residents Martin Moffatt and Euan Neilson, and their first guest is young talent French Fries (Young Gunz), grooving the crowd with latino-house frays. Or should that be ‘fries’.

Thursday, 4 August 2011

Featured Club of the Week: Substance Venue: The Store, Edinburgh Date: Saturday 6th August

Get a little techno in your life at the Festival special of Substance, spinning hard, minimal and on-trend techno. One half of Instra:mental, Boddika, joins the crew for a live set of Detroit-tinged electro and techno morphed into his own style. Support comes from Missaw, M. De Large, Dommm, Nostra Terra, and Gavin Richardson.

In this Festival special for Mad Caravan, Astroboy of Departure Lounge drops in for a set with Matei, Waapa and the Old Town Sessions, spinning gypsy and balkan beats, reggae, ska, latin and more, with live belly dancers and visuals.

11pm-3am, £6

Club: Telefunken
Venue: The Store
Date: Friday 5th August

Another Festival opening party; this time it’s Telefunken welcoming house gangster and second wave legend, DJ Sneak, to the fold for a 5am special. Grab the correct shoes for Chicago grooving and disco-filtering moves, as you need over 6 hours of maximum dancing efficiency!

Next up in the opening parties is Musika and even more funky house from a three hour Sasha set, supported by live beats from Guy Gerber. For a bit of Eden quality for the proceedings, Musika are opening the garden area – idyllic for smokers and sweating dancers alike! Support comes from Derek Martin and the residents.

Devil Disco takes it deeper and a bit psychedelic with live electro-disco guest Lord of the Isles. Whether he is actually descended from an original Lord of the Isles in Scotland is up for debate, but his music as a fit for DDC is of no question. Support comes from the Trouble DJs and Giles Walker with more proto-house, NY, funk and acidic electronics.

Not sure I entirely recovered from Rubadub is 18, but if you’ve got the stomach of steel for all that partying, head to the Subbie for a special performance by Chicago house legends, Virgo 4, making their live debut in Scotland. Making hit beats when I was still learning to write, they’re still rocking the dancefloors.

Round up
My, this will be a quick round-up. Glasgow is definitely looking lighter this week, but that’s probably because Edinburgh just opened up their licensing hours and capacities for the Festival. If you remain resolute to Glasgow, check out Squelch Vs Juice at the Soundhaus on Friday 5th, when two clubs go head to head for a tech-house and minimal double-team with Murfi, Baddison, Billy Shearer, Russell Carroll, Mista Fleck, Johnny Whyte, Mike Provan and more (10pm-3am, £tbc). Over at Nice ‘n’ Sleazy’s David Barbarossa’s Thing returns for two floors of disco, reggae and punk rock until 3am (11.30pm, £3), and Traktion takes Basura Blanca with guest DJ Kenny Campbell for house and techno deliverance with residents Colin Forbes and Chaz Johnston (10pm-2am, £5). On Saturday 6th Deathkill 4000 hosts their industrorock noise club with guest Kaskrute (Bloc, 10pm-3am, free).

In the EES Summer Spectacular Part 2, they follow up their slammin’ set with Drop the Lime with Foamo, star of We Love… at Space Ibiza slicing up UK garage, tech-house, with a splash of trance rises, electro and more.

Ah the 90s… dancing to 20 Fingers and Prodigy at the primary school disco (always wondered how the DJ got away with it). If you fancy reliving your version of the early 90s, head to Going Back To Our Roots with a third birthday house special with the residents.

Really digging Mondkopf this year, and awaiting his album, Rising Doom, due October 3rd. Imagine Lo-Quality's delight when he decided to give one of the tracks for his upcoming release away for free!

Grab 'Song of Shadows' here, and stay tuned to his website, In Paradisum. You can also catch Mondkopf in Glasgow on 17th of September 2011, live at The Arches - more info on that soon. All gig details, releases, mixes and more are also available from In Paradisum.

The free samples just keep coming! Next up on Aquasky's Monster Sounds label in conjunction with Loopmasters is Kelevra with jackin' tech and electro house. Grab your free samples and the promo mix, below.

Loopmasters and Monster Sounds are proud to release a fresh collection of sounds from the studio of Kelvera for producers of Jackin, Tech and Electro House music. Kelevra is a name that most people are now familiar with and if not by name then very likely due to his incredible productions and focus. He spearheaded the Jackin House scene and dabbled in the Fidget scene when it first evolved. During this era he created the Fidget Kingdom label and stamped his authority all over it with the labels debut release ‘Jak Music’ which he wrote alongside Whiskey Pete. The tunes kept on coming with cutting edge guests such as Micky Slim, Moston & Malente, Aniki, Klaus Hill, Jaimie Fanatic, Bill Eff, Breakdown and of course himself and Whiskey Pete. Over the past few years Kelevra has been pushing the bassline sound of house music through a wide variety of labels such as Wearhouse Music, Potty Mouth and Passenger and has been fortunate enough to have collaborated and remixed such artists as Bam Bam, Aquasky, Miles Dyson, DJ Dan, Blake Miller, Niki Belucci, Sharooz, Black Noise, Will Bailey, Hatiras and MC Flipside.

But he isn’t just a lover of the bassline... he is also heavily involved in the bumpin’ stripped back Tech House movement and has recently created the alias Temple Of Boom to really showcase this side of his production. And it is between these two posts, the rugged bassline energy of Kelevra past and the Jackin Tech House of Kelevra / Temple Of Boom future that we delve into his first sample pack for Monster Sounds under the tutoring of the scenes leader Loopmasters.

Jackin Tech House weighs in at an impressive 940MB and includes 780 24Bit samples, with 282 Loops between 125 – 128 Bpm, and 500 One Shot Samples. If you like to program your own parts you will be glad to hear that we have included 100 ready to play patches for Halion, EXS, Kontakt, SFZ and Reason NNXT Soft Samplers. Apple Loops, Reason Refill and Ableton Live versions are also available to purchase separately.

Kelevra presents Jackin Tech House is a heavy dose of fine productions skills from the mind of a scene leader. And keeping with the Monster Sounds artist release formula this pack features a guest vocalist from California by the name of Tory Davis.

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About Me

Scotland-based Lo-quality gained her name from a reputation of attracting unsavoury, mad and bad characters in her early clubbing years, and it's stuck as an internet alias ever since. The unsavoury characters still find their way across the dancefloor, but her dance moves include a lot more elbows now.
She likes music, she likes writing, and the two combined have led to work and editorships with the likes of DJ Mag, Clash Magazine, The Skinny, Miscreat, and more recently, her own blogspot. For the past year Lo-Quality Music has been providing features, artist interviews (local and international), free tunes, Scottish club listings, and throwing open the web to reader requests for features and genre deconstructions. The aim is insights into dance music that scratch deeper than a worn needle on vinyl.
Despite interviewing Gayle San dripping wet in beer; accidentally suggesting Calvin Harris call his LP 'I'm a twat'; and disturbing Milton Bradley with a question about faeces, Lo-Quality gets the goods... and then leaves the awkward parts out.